Cooling Off Time-share Pressures Pa. House Studies Vacation Sales Tactics

You've seen the envelopes in your mailbox.

Often they look as if they had come from the government, because they are drab brown and because they carry messages on the front with slogans like ''Buy U.S. Savings Bonds" or return addresses with the words "federal," ''U.S." or "national" in their names.

And, of course, the envelope windows can be kind of thought-provoking as well. It sure looks as if there might be a government check inside - perhaps a refund check from the Internal Revenue Service that you weren't expecting.

Then, just for a moment, you find yourself thinking that maybe somebody has

sent you a whole lot of money.

So you rip open the envelope. There is something that looks like a check, a $100,000 check in fact.

But wait. It's not really a check after all. The small print says "not negotiable for cash." That's when most people flip it into the trash can.

Others, though, remain intrigued.

So they read the letter that goes with the phony check. It says something about participating in a sweepstakes giveaway and that you are one of the finalists in the giveaway and that you've won either the money stated on the

phony check or one of several other prizes.

It says that you can claim your prize by calling a toll-free number and then driving to a site in the Poconos or the Jersey shore to pick it up.

What it fails to make clear is that when you visit the site, you're most likely not going to get the grand prize, which often is a house or $100,000 in cash; or the first prize, which can be a new luxury car; or the second prize, which can be a Florida vacation; or even the third prize, which can be a stereo, television set or other home electronic device.

What you'll probably get is something of considerably less value, like a plastic grandfather clock.

And in return for accepting the gift, you'll be pitched a real estate deal. You'll be asked to buy a share of time for the use of a condominium or a campsite for a recreational vehicle.

It's called time-sharing.

Time-sharing allows vacationers to purchase a block of time, usually a week, in a time-share resort. Then they can use the apartment, home or campsite for decades.

Time-shares have been with us for years. But campsite time-shares are a relatively new twist that has caught the attention of legislators.

And the high-pressure sales tactics used by some of the time-share developers have led to charges of abuse.